Five key pillars of digital sales aids for remote engagement

In all professional settings, conversing and presenting information over video calls has become second nature. While we all may have adapted to become digital natives in these remote tools, in the pharmaceutical industry the question still lingers – are remote engagements as impactful as face-to-face meetings?

We believe that they can be, so long as the mindset and toolset of the KAM or rep is right and that the materials at their fingertips have been created with a remote-first approach. You may have a Vault full of digital content for your reps to share, but how does it measure up against our five pillars of functional content?

Over the past 18 months we’ve seen an incredible amount of digital content being produced for use by reps and KAMs. With remote meetings established as the norm, leveraging CLM player features and functional content can significantly uplift the success rate of a call with an HCP.

Collaborative content design

When the tables turned and presentations to HCPs went from predominantly in-person to almost overwhelmingly remote, DSA content and rep presentation style needed to quickly adapt to the technology. While reps have now had plenty of time to adjust to this blended way of working, not all agencies and brand teams have adjusted their approach to content creation accordingly.

Co-creation has always been important in improving the uptake and performance of digital sales aids, however it is more important than ever to work with reps on the navigation and flow of key messages to support a successful sales call – regardless of whether it is in-person or remote.

Functional, interactive content

According to STEM Healthcare research, “high quality, emotive, interactive eDAs deliver a 71% improvement in ‘good sell outcomes’ compared to simple eDAs.”

Quite simply, too many sales aids are little more than a lovingly-designed PDF. They may look nice, but they lack function, which in turn reduces the level of engagement that a rep is able to generate during a call. There are so many ways of employing simple, but impactful interactive functionality within DSAs to record insights such as key referrer or prescribing data, which creates a two way dialogue and saves great insights to the CRM post-call.

Leveraging integrations and native functionality

A really effective key account plan will see a seamless dialogue with the HCP over the course of a certain period of time. Failing to follow up on a call can very quickly break that flow – and at busy times this is the sort of thing that can so easily be missed.

The best sales aids make use of in-built functionality, such as triggering Veeva Approved Emails from within a call. Sharing this specific, tailored information is an ideal way of gaining consent if not already sought and for continuing the conversation beyond the call itself. Veeva are constantly enhancing the feature set available within calls – as our write up of their most recent 22R3 deployment will testify.

Measuring effectiveness with custom analytics

Call clickstream data is somewhat under utilised and should provide brand teams with all the data they need to audit the effectiveness of their materials. Custom analytics that goes far beyond just recording the duration of the call is achievable, meaning that genuine insights can be gathered on which key messages are resonating, which slides are underused and a whole host of other custom functions.

The next step is harnessing this data in a meaningful way using Veeva MyInsights dashboards, however you need a strategy for data collection from the outset so don’t rush into production without a measurement plan!

Training and field team adoption

While much of the above focuses on having the right toolset, there is also a lot to be said for supporting reps around mindset. Not all presentations can be delivered in the same manner remotely as they would have been face-to-face, so training around an effective close is incredibly important.

In addition, if time and thought has gone into what can be measured, then CRM and commercial teams need to work with the field team to ensure they understand the value of the data. A good measurement plan includes a ‘so what?’ statement, to ensure that any data captured creates meaningful insight and triggers a next best action of some description.

How to assess the impact of your digital sales aids

Using our experience we’ve compiled a 25 point remote engagement health check. In just five minutes, you’ll receive a tailored, actionable report that provides guidance on the areas of remote engagement that your organisation or team most needs to focus on.

Data-driven insights in the hands of field teams [CASE STUDY]

It is fair to say that understanding your territory is only half the battle when it comes to selling effectiveness for pharma reps. However – despite being a contradiction in terms – it’s a rather big half. It’s also an area where data quality, availability and the presentation method so often come up short in the pharmaceutical industry.

To help address this, we partnered with RNAi therapeutics pharmaceutical Alnylam and industry CRM giants Veeva, to deliver a MyInsights Dashboard that truly delivers actionable territory insights to the KAMs that need them, in turn driving smarter and more informed next actions.

For more information on the project, you can download our co-authored whitepaper on the Veeva website. Below are our highlights of what made this such a successful project.

Driving adoption in the field force

Working with the Alnylam project team of senior CRM and digital specialists, there was a clear objective to use the project as a vehicle for change; ensuring that data presented to KAMs was a genuinely useful and engaging tool.

Thoughtful, rep-centric user experience design would prove to be crucial to uptake, with a stated aim among the project team to create a habit-forming experience that drove KAM adoption and enhanced their belief in the power and value of CRM.

Consulting and advising alongside the Alnylam project team, we adopted a field-centric approach – workshopping with KAMs to learn their pain points and implement design thinking to identify data-serving methods that best suited their needs.

Geomapping for a clearer territory focus

The flagship feature of the KAM dashboard – developed within the Veeva MyInsights platform – is the interactive territory map. This bespoke feature helps the KAM to visualise their territory, understand clusters and most importantly, notifies them of changes within a region which they may need to act on. 

By surfacing this information in an eye-catching way, the map view ensures that the KAMs can create target lists and plan relevant engagements based on up-to-date changes, leading to a more dynamic way of working.

Visualising every HCP touchpoint

Staying on top of your individual account planning for each HCP on your territory can be challenging for KAMs, so we sought to address this by furthering the out of the box timeline view to capture a broader range of customer interactions. Measuring a doctor’s level of advocacy and engagement would have previously involved dipping in and out of various different views within the CRM, so we made a concerted effort to harness as much useful information around interactions as possible, in one place.

The bespoke timeline view records past and planned interactions such as webinar attendance, web visits and head office interactions. Surfacing these channels in one place makes planning the next engagement with an HCP a more considered and insight-led process for the KAMs.

At twentyeightb we are on a journey to empower and inspire the multichannel rep with genuinely useful tools, so we were thrilled that this project both aligned with our mission and achieved the objectives of our client, Alnylam.

“The Veeva CRM MyInsights dashboards help our field teams obtain a better understanding of data, for planning and decision-making. They can better visualise data and the data is always current because it is in CRM”

Anthony Sclafani, director of strategic technologies at Alnylam

If you are interested in learning more about the concept of Veeva MyInsights dashboards, then check out our service page. However, if you understand the concept and are keen to undergo a journey to surface genuine insights to your field teams using Veeva MyInsights, then get in touch and we would be happy to advise you on the best path.

How to make the most of Veeva My Presentations

Enabling users to build, save and edit custom presentations using pre-approved slides on Veeva CRM for iPad.

The ‘My Presentations’ function on Veeva CRM for iPad (formerly iRep) enables users to quickly and simply create custom presentations within Veeva CRM for iPad by selecting pre-approved slides from configured CLM presentations downloaded to the Veeva CRM for iPad media library.

Once a custom presentation has been created and saved, it becomes available for use with customers in the same way as a standard CLM presentation. Custom presentations also become an integral part of the Veeva CLM system and, if saved against a customer account during a call, will record standard Veeva analytics (slide use and duration). This can be analysed to provide insights at a local/market/regional/global level.

Users can amend and manage saved presentations, at any point, by accessing them via the ‘My Presentations’ window.

The source CLM presentations and the slides available to users in ‘My Presentations’ is configured centrally. Mandatory content slides can be associated to any slide to meet compliance requirements.

Updates to slides can be done centrally and pushed to users and all slides within existing custom presentations will be automatically updated when a device is synchronized.

Veeva My Presentations walk-through

Creating a custom presentation

new presentation

Users can create and name the custom presentation via the + icon in the ‘Manage My Presentations’ window. Users should be given clear guidance on effective naming convention to optimise presentation identification and management in Veeva CRM for iPad.

Accessing/using the slide library

Accessing slides

Slides available to the user for use in ‘My Presentations’ are displayed down the left hand side of the page. They are grouped by presentation and can be filtered by product using the field at the top of the menu.

Each slide is represented by a 20x15mm thumbnail and text description (max 62 characters – optimal display 40 characters or less). So it is important to adopt and implement a clear and logical convention for slide descriptors.

Building a presentation

building a presentation

User must tap a slide to add it to the custom presentation. Selected slides appear in the slide sorter window and are represented by a larger 40x30mm thumbnail and description (max 62 characters). Note: thumbnails and descriptions cannot be different in these two views, so we recommend that they are optimised for display when at their smallest on left hand side menu).

A maximum of 9 slides can be seen in the slide sorter window at any one time. A user can tap and drag slides into preferred order.

Slides that have mandatory slide(s) linked to them are identified with an orange arrow icon top right of the thumbnail. N.B: mandatory slides are not displayed on the slide sorter page but are moved automatically if the linked parent slide position is changed.

Presentation properties

custom presentation properties

The user can access and edit properties for saved custom presentations.

veeva presentation properties

Default properties are available and could potentially add other/custom properties/fields to improve user experience (e.g customer segment). Changes to properties would be implemented by client IT.

Accessing saved presentations

Access saved presentations

User created custom presentations are accessed and displayed via the standard media viewer page on Veeva CRM for iPad. They are automatically grouped by Veeva CRM for iPad under the ‘My Presentations’ directory in the folder hierarchy. For enhanced management presentations, these can be associated to existing or custom Veeva directories and filtered using the folder hierarchy function in Veeva CRM for iPad.

Presentations are represented by a thumbnail with presentation name displayed below. Veeva CRM for iPad uses the thumbnail associated to the first slide in that presentation. Compliance consideration should be given to thumbnails and presentation names as these may be seen by customers whilst the user is launching a presentation via the media viewer page.

We hope you found our guide to My Presentations useful. You can find out more about our approach to Veeva here, or get in touch to discuss your Veeva challenges.

For the administrators and the more technically minded out there we have also included some basic information on technical and configuration requirements, see below…enjoy!

The Nitty Gritty

‘My Presentations’ technical requirements (top level):

  • Target user group have access to current version of Veeva CRM on iPad/Windows Tablet
  • Client Veeva is configured with user profile distinct to target users
  • Target user profile is correctly configured to enable ‘My Presentations’ functionality (n.b also need ensuring privacy settings are in place to prevent custom presentation sharing between users). If not currently configured, client IT will need to implement (assumes no commercial/regulatory conflicts globally and at market level)
  • Source CLM presentations

Veeva configuration requirements

Required permissions for target user profile:

  • Full permissions on the CLM_Presentation_vod and CLM_Presentation_Slide_vod objects
  • Security settings on CLM_Presentation_vod must be set to private (to prevent users from receiving custom presentations created by other users)
  • Set grant access using hierarchies to false on the CLM presentation and CLM presentation slides objects to prevent managers from syncing their subordinates’ custom presentations
  • Create a sharing rule to provide users access to presentations created by content administrators (e.g. Type_vod NOT EQUAL to ‘Custom’)
  • Read/write access to the Mobile_ID_vod field on CLM_Presentation_vod and CLM_Presentation_Slide_vod objects
  • Read/write access to the Type_vod field on CLM_Presentation_vod

Optional configuration for target user profile (to improve My Presentations UX and presentation management on device):

  • To enable custom presentations to contain key messages from multiple products MULTI_PROD_USER_DEFINED_PRESENTATION_vod
  • Presentations folder hierarchy – need read permissions to the Directory_vod field on the CLM_Presentation_vod object, an active VMobile Object Configuration record for the Directory_vod object and read only access to the Directory_vod object
  • To enable user to create directories via Veeva CLM online portal (assuming have content admin rights)
    • Enable read, create, modify, delete access to the Directory_vod object.
    • Required to have edit access on Name and Parent_Directory_vod field
    • Read access to Level_vod
    • Enable access to the CLM_vod record type for the Directory_vod object
    • Enable the directory tab
    • Provide edit access to the Directory_vod field on CLM_Presentation_vod
    • Add the Directory_vod field on the appropriate page layouts for CLM_Presentation_vod.

Veeva Sunrise UI – key interface updates to look out for

Early access – take a sneak peek at the highlights and key features from Veeva’s new Sunrise User Interface.

Veeva’s all new Sunrise User Interface is a ground-up rebuild, completely refreshing the look and feel after six years.

All Veeva CRM for iPad users will receive the upgrade automatically as part of the 18R2 release August 2018.

They have focussed on streamlining the user experience, with a smoother workflow that requires fewer clicks to access information and take actions.

At its core is a dashboard providing immediate access to a wide variety of information, without having to dig through several layers of screens to locate it.

The orange bar at the top of the screen – the Sunrise bar from which the UI takes its name – provides quick access to reports. It is worth noting that this will not appear in Media Presentations as existing DSAs do not need to be redesigned to fit into a smaller screen size – the Media Player still takes over the entire screen.

graphs in Veeva sunrise

Across the bottom of the screen are icons to access the usual tasks needed to be completed during the average working day for field force representatives.

A lot of work has been put into maximising the screen real estate available for information and minimising the clutter of components and controls. The account list now spreads right across the screen.

Sunrise contact list

Also, actions can be completed directly from the account list, reducing the number of click throughs needed.

Actions in Sunrise contact list

Filtering of the account list can also be performed directly from the same screen, the search bar has moved and the entire screen width is now utilised.

filtering in sunrise contact list

There is now a combined view of account and call history information, streamlining access to data by holding everything in a single screen:

sunrise account filtering

The calendar view has been reworked to give a high level overview of diary and accounts in the same place:

calendar view rework

Comparing the new Sunrise interface to the old

The accounts screen is now far more streamlined with much more information available at a glance:

My Accounts - Comparison

And the cards in the calendar are now packed with information to make them far more useful:

My Schedule - Comparison

The Agenda view has also been reworked, again with an emphasis on providing extra information within a single screen.

Re-Design_1

Calendaring is also improved with the creation of appointments being made much easier with a direct view of the dates and times.

Re-Design_2

Certain screens have not been totally redesigned but have been re-skinned for a much cleaner and more current view.

Re-Skin

All the latest Veeva CRM updates

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What to expect from the all new Veeva Brand Portals

With Veeva’s all new Brand Portals coming as part of their big 17R3 release in December, here’s our sneak peek of the most exciting features that are set to be unveiled.

What is a Veeva Brand Portal?

The Brand Portals will be offered as part of the current Vault licence fee and will support multiple brand levels, making it possible to have an above-brand portal with security rights for different users to the brands below that level.

What does this mean in practice? Ultimately, a single central source of global brand materials that maximises content reuse and compliance visibility. This content can then be accessed via a lower level affiliate Brand Portal where localised and approved versions can be held, accessed and reused.

Add in the ability to customise logos and colour schemes and the new Brand Portal will offer a much more bespoke, brand oriented user experience.

The Portal will also be available for Med Comms and Value Comms (Promomats) vaults, with all Vault content being accessible via these Portals. Users with access to multiple Portals land on a Portal Selector page at login and can select the Portal they want to enter from there. These Portals have the potential to become a one stop shop for many key communications projects such as Value Communications Toolkits. Keeping everything in one place and reducing the admin and compliance burden dangles the tempting potential of significant savings for Pharma. This is especially true when compared to the alternative of building and hosting such tools on various disparate generic platforms such as SharePoint, Joomla and Huddle.

 

Screenshot of Veeva Brand Portals

 

What will a Veeva Brand Portal be like to use?

This time around Veeva have really gone all out to create a bespoke user experience by introducing a number of useful new widgets and tools. Here’s the low-down on the new features.

Carousel

A slide carousel provides quick access to documents in an intuitive fashion.

Filters

A series of top level filters form a quick access toolbar for direct links to relevant materials:

  • Announcements
  • Market Access
  • Presentations
  • References
  • Videos

Highlighted materials

Further sections of the portal home page offer rapid retrieval of relevant information and ability for brand managers to direct representatives and affiliates to the items of interest.

Featured items

These are items specifically curated by the brand team.

Most popular

Automatically generated by analysis of Vault downloads.

Recently added

Automatically generated by date of upload.

Each item has a state and classification with colour coding, e.g. green for “Approved for Distribution”. This allows rapid assembly of a presentation using the most appropriate materials.

Announcements

Brand managers can set announcements on their page, alerting users to updates, perhaps highlighting new or prime content.

Searching

There is a search facility to find materials containing a given text or tag (provided the content is semantic).

Results are presented in a Tile view to allow for rapid identification of the correct asset.
Faceted Search allows for filtering of the results to narrow down to the area required (e.g. CLM Presentations, Market Access Materials, References).

It is also possible to filter by owner, reviewer, country, status and product. So for example you could specify all UK materials for Cholecap which are waiting for approval and have Joe Brown as the reviewer.

Document metrics

Vault now allows capture of metrics on viewing, downloading and rendition downloads of materials from Vault.

  • Total document activities
  • Total downloads
  • Total copies
  • Usage by channel (E.g. each brand accessing common materials – helicopter view)
  • Most popular document types
  • Most popular documents
  • Most active users

These metrics are available in an easy-to-view dashboard.

Referencing in Vault

All references are now linked up – blue highlights in the rendition within Vault connect up to the source reference document that will appear in a popup window. The specific aspect of a reference document will be found, with no need to switch into annotation mode or review one by one in the annotation pane.

It’s also now possible to link internally to a document, in the same manner as using # anchors in HTML pages.

Bookmarks now connect directly to the area in the document where the bookmark was placed. These features enable users to navigate large and unwieldy documents much more quickly and easily.

Are Veeva Brand Portals a positive development?

With these enhancements, Veeva have moved away from Vault being a simple repository with a user interface geared towards more IT-savvy users. It is now possible to create an attractive, intuitive and easy to access portal to pull together content that is accessible to all. Veeva Brand Portals looks set to maximise the benefits of a single source approach to digital asset management and further streamline the creation-approval-distribution cycle – a development that Pharma has been crying out for. We’re sure that the team at twentyeightb won’t be the only ones looking forward to Veeva rolling this out in December.

For more information look out for Veeva’s Brand Portal Public Education Webinar to be held this January 2018. Or if you’re interested in learning more about the services that we offer as Veeva CLM development specialists, feel free to get in touch with our team of experts.